FEATURES
Follow UsHow do you even stop Yashasvi Jaiswal in Indian conditions?
13 innings. 901 runs. An average of 75.08 and a strike rate of 80.30 with six fifties and two double hundreds.
Yep, it’s getting absurd now. Yashasvi Jaiswal looks absolutely invincible at home and it’s not even funny anymore.
The left-hander did not cross three digits in any of the four innings in this series, but the Bangladesh bowlers were as helpless and clueless as the English bowlers were earlier in the year.
Across the two Tests, at no point did Jaiswal look like he would get out. The only respite the bowlers got was when the youngster, out of the blue, threw away his wicket trying to force the issue.
It almost feels like it’s game over for the opponent if they don’t dismiss Jaiswal within the first hour. You bring on spin, your chances of getting him are as good as zero: Jaiswal now has scored 772 runs against spin in Test cricket at a ridiculous average of 110.29. 674 of these runs have come at home at an average of 112.33 and strike rate of 88.22.
If you’re Mitchell Santner, Glenn Phillips and Ajaz Patel, how are you even supposed to prepare against this kid?
Akash Deep is making a serious case for BGT selection
Akash Deep is all of three Tests old, but you would never be able to guess that watching him bowl. He operates and shoulders responsibility like a veteran. And he almost always ‘makes things happen’ like he is the spearhead of the attack.
Across the two Tests, the Indian bowling bulldozed Bangladesh’s batting, and it was Akash Deep who set the tone for the riot with his double strike on Day 2 of the Chennai Test, where he sent the stumps of Zakir Hasan and Mominul Haque flying in consecutive deliveries.
All series, the right-armer had the Bangladesh batters dancing to his tunes: the 27-year-old induced a false shot percentage of 27%, which was the second-highest among all bowlers (across both sides). He also conceded the fewest boundaries among all Indian bowlers in the series.
Mohammed Shami might not have played a Test all year, but so far, Akash Deep has ensured India have not missed the presence of the former one bit. It helps that he has a style eerily similar to Shami: very skiddy, thereby rushing the batters and getting a lot of bowleds and LBWs.
READ: Unstoppable Akash Deep keeps growing from strength to strength
The whip he gets in his action, coupled with the skid, has especially proven to be a nightmare so far for left-handers. Six of Akash Deep’s eight victims in Tests have so far been left-handers, with him averaging 12.2 against the lefties.
It remains to be seen how he’ll fare outside India, but Akash Deep is making a serious case not just to be in the squad for the Australia tour but potentially the starting XI.
Rishabh Pant is back, and it's like he never left
No Test cricket for 636 days? No problem.
Rishabh Pant returned to red-ball cricket after nearly two years and looked like he hadn’t missed even a single day of action.
He warmed up with a counter-attacking 39 (52) under pressure in his first Test back in Chennai and hammered a sizzling ton in just his second innings back. And in that particular knock, Pant showed the full range.
He took 88 balls to score his first 50 runs - which was his third-slowest fifty in Tests ever - and then took just 36 more balls to get to his ton. Over the course of his 128-ball stay in the second innings in Chennai, the left-hander brought out all his trademark hits, including the one-handed six.
The game situation forced Pant to throw his wicket away in the first innings in Kanpur, but it was rather fitting that he hit the winning runs in the second dig, that too with a boundary.
READ: Welcome back, Rishabh! Test cricket missed you
That being said, while Pant’s batting looks sharp as ever, his keeping was a bit underwhelming across the two Tests. He dropped multiple catches and also missed stumping opportunities. He did not commit outright blunders but you could see that Pant did not have that extra spring in his step when he was behind the wickets.
India will be hoping that he dusts off this rust in the New Zealand series and gets back to full sharpness by the time the BGT comes around.
India’s XI for the BGT is starting to take shape
With three home Tests against New Zealand to go before the ultimate showdown in Australia, it does look like India’s XI for that first Test in Perth is really starting to take shape.
There is no question about Jaiswal & Rohit Sharma being the openers, but Shubman Gill has also settled nicely at No.3 and sealed his spot there. Gill now averages 65.88 across his last 11 Test innings at No.3.
Pant is back, solving the wicketkeeper problems, and KL Rahul seems to have earned the trust of the management for that specialist batter role in the middle-order. Rahul silenced his critics to an extent in Kanpur by smashing his fastest-ever fifty.
Rohit-Jaiswal-Gill-Kohli-Pant-Rahul-Jadeja. The top seven seems fully set.
The only question will be whether Ashwin starts and who among Akash Deep and Siraj gets the nod as the third seamer (assuming Mohammed Shami recovers in time).
Should Shami prove he is ready, that might create a fascinating battle for the third seamer’s spot. Akash Deep might be a new kid on the block, but he is really pushing Siraj in home Tests at least.
Should Shami not recover on time, then it seems a given that Bumrah, Siraj and Akash Deep will be India’s three frontline pacers in Australia.
If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out on our content — big time. Download the App here.
